What is your opinion regarding the fact that some people are proceeding to authenticate the Prophetic biography, because if it were authenticated, very little of it would remain?

The questioner : Shaykh, there is a question. What is the ruling on the recent talk we heard about authenticating the biography, where they want to authenticate the biography?

The Shaykh: Who is it?

The questioner : Some students of knowledge, or...

The Shaykh : I mean, is the discussion about the Shi'ah over?

The questioner : Yes, it is over. They want to authenticate the biography. I believe that if the biography were authenticated, only a few pages would remain. What is your opinion on authenticating the biography? Because it is all narrations. Perhaps nothing in Islamic history would remain to be relied upon, in terms of the biography, the journeys, and the military expeditions?

The Shaykh : Yes, if we assume that is the case, does the biography remain without authentication, in your opinion?

The questioner : As narrations, as a narration, is it valid to authenticate it?

The Shaykh : Do not repeat it. Once is enough for you.

The questioner : The principle is that one knows these stories are authentic.

The Shaykh : And this principle is correct?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : But the prohibited matter that results from the authentic one would be prohibited?
Laughter.The Shaykh : (may Allah have mercy on him).

The questioner : I want to inquire whether this is valid or not.

The Shaykh : If your inquiry were not presented with a predetermined conclusion, it would have been a different kind of research. (laughs)The Shaykh : (may Allah have mercy on him) The Prophetic biography, my brother, does not differ at all from the Prophetic hadith, especially when we recall the meaning of hadith according to the scholars of hadith, where they say that hadith is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him), his doing, and his approval. Does the Prophetic biography fall outside of any one of these three?

The questioner : It does not fall outside.

The Shaykh : It does not fall outside. If that is the case, is it permissible for us to divide the hadith into two categories, authentic and weak, and the matter is indeed so, as you said regarding the biography? And after this division, we return and say that if we make the hadith authentic and weak, we will lose a large portion of the hadith? Is it permissible for us to take this stance and say, "No, we do not research the hadith and reach the point of saying this is authentic and is relied upon, and this is weak and is not relied upon, and this is not permissible"? Would a Muslim say this?

The questioner : I am a Muslim with regard to the hadith, but I say...

The Shaykh : But you are a Muslim with regard to the biography as well; because you agreed that the hadith includes the biography, and that the biography is either the saying of the Messenger, or his doing, or his approval. So what are you afraid of?

The questioner : What I fear is that they are all problematic narrations of the biography.

The Shaykh : And the hadiths are all narrations.
Al-Halabi : Our Shaykh, in a practical response to him, many of the brothers, students of knowledge, for example in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, have submitted master's and doctoral theses, and every thesis is about, for example, a military expedition or an event from the events of the biography, and it turns out to be a volume of three hundred or four hundred pages about individual events. For example, 'Abd al-Qadir al-Sindi wrote about the expedition to Tabuk, and others wrote about the Battle of Badr, each book being three hundred or four hundred pages. So the pages you imagined are not present at all. Then, our Shaykh, may Allah reward him with good, began authenticating the biography and reached the Night Journey and Ascension, as I recall from long ago. He has cut off, and he is still at the Night Journey and Ascension, and tens, indeed hundreds of pages have been written by the authenticator on this. In my opinion, and Allah knows best, this is not present, our professor.

The Shaykh : It is not present to this degree of severity, but some of it is present without a doubt, just as there is no difference with the hadith itself.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good. The comprehensive book of authentic and weak... the text by the text, but it is in our wind.

The Shaykh : Ah, yes, meaning there is no sane Muslim who accepts the biography in its current state, is there? And there is no doubt in this fact?

The questioner : That there is not some of it.

The Shaykh : Good. What is the way to escape from this reality that no Muslim is pleased with, that there is in the biography something that is not valid to attribute to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)? Is it not necessary to distinguish this thing that is not pleasing, at least for the scholars of the Muslims? Is the way not the way that the scholars of hadith take in knowing the authentic hadith from the weak? If there is no other way, and that is the case, then it is necessary that when the researching authenticator enters this path, the biography must be divided for him into two categories, authentic and weak. Otherwise, carrying it as it came, with its defects and its virtues, includes, for example, in the biography, what many of the young Muslims today have taken and put in the category of religious anthems, and attached to it some musical instruments. "The moon has risen upon us from the folds of al-Wada'"—is this not mentioned in the biography? So we congratulate them with it; because it is mentioned in the biography. You will say before me, "No, this is not authentic." So there is much like it that is not authentic. So it is obligatory for the people of knowledge to distinguish what is authentic from what is not authentic, and so on.
Al-Halabi : Our Shaykh, speaking of anthems today, one of the brothers told me this morning after we returned from you. He says, "I heard anthems on the same melodies of the obscene songs, but they changed them with Islamic words. And the songs are by the Egyptian and Lebanese female singers, and so on, the same melody and the same tune, but words that speak about Islam."

The Shaykh : This is present among the Sufis here in Syria from long ago, from long ago.

The questioner : He mentioned itThe Shaykh : In some of the lessons.